2013/05/12

Hoo-eee. The first 3/4 of my night at work was spent fighting against the effects of a cold, which was doing its best to make me sit down and do nothing. The last 1/4 of the time, two full hours, was spent listening to a fellow refer to himself as the Archangel Gabriel and also as the Archangel Michael - generally in the third person - as he talked my ear off. At least he took my mind off my achy body.

He started his tale with a vivid account of an encounter with Lucifer and a female sex demon on an Asheville bus, and from there it started to get weird. Evidently he had asked for a cup of water at a Chik-Fil-A in Asheville but what he was given was Drano. And yet he survived unscathed, for he is not of this world; he is the Archangel Michael made flesh. Except when he calls up the Archangel Gabriel to give Michael strength. He did this in my presence and surely seemed to believe everything that he was saying. Most of the time it was Gabriel who spoke.

He didn't seem to be a danger to himself or others, but on the other hand he didn't show any signs of slowing down or leaving and I didn't want to leave my female manager alone with him when I went home. So, I nodded when she caught my eye and mouthed, "Should I call someone?"

Eventually the town cops showed up. They were very nice to the guy - his name is probably actually Matthew, from what I could gather during the two-hour monologue, but who's to say for sure - and they asked if he needed a ride anywhere. "I'm going west," he said, "probably Nashville first." They offered to take him to the local truck stop and suggested that he could get a ride from a trucker.

Whether they actually took him there, I don't know. They were still chatting amiably with him some time later when I finally left for home. I do know that he told me that his final goals are the Hopi reservation and then Los Angeles, because the Hopi symbolize hope (if you say so, Gabriel) and the City of Angels needs an archangel to save it from sin.